L.A.'s next mayor to have regional impact

The next mayor of Los Angeles - City Councilman Eric Garcetti or City Controller Wendy Greuel - can be expected to have political influence well beyond their city's limits.

"Anything that happens in Los Angeles city is of interest to the region," said Raphael Sonenshein, executive director of the Pat Brown Institute of Public Affairs at Cal State Los Angeles.

Whoever ends up elected as mayor of Los Angeles immediately becomes one of the most visible public figures in the state, and a de facto spokesman for the surrounding region. Tuesday's mayoral election may also demonstrate how voters' opinions and demands are shifting in and around Los Angeles. Politicians seeking or holding office in other Southern California cities may adjust their platforms and governing strategies based on what they see happening in California's most populated city.

"The mayor of L.A. can be a huge leader on local issues," said Douglas Johnson, a fellow at The Rose Institute for State and Local Government.

"For example, Richard Riordan set the tone and was an example for much of the state."

Johnson credited Riordan, who was the city's mayor from 1993 to 2001, with placing an emphasis on charter reforms and attempting to improve Los Angeles' bureaucracy to make the city more responsive to businesses.

The city's mayor also plays a key role in transportation policy - controlling three or four seats on the Metropolitan Transportation Agency's board of directors - and also has influence on issues such as goods movement from the ports through the Inland Empire as well as airports such as Los Angeles International and L.A./Ontario International.

Observers have credited outgoing Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, along with then Pasadena City Councilman Chris Holden, of leading the efforts to put Measure R on the ballot and including such projects as extending the Gold Line light rail system eastward through the San Gabriel Valley's foothill communities.

"Villaraigosa was really the key to it. It's a pretty major achievement," Sonenshein said.

Voters approved Measure R by a two-thirds majority, deciding to raise sales taxes in the midst of a recession in return for promised relief from traffic congestion.

Measure R is projected to raise about $40 billion over three decades. Besides the Gold Line, the MTA's project list calls for that money to be spent on road and highway improvements throughout Los Angeles County as well as funding for bus lines and Metrolink.

The Gold Line presently runs from East Los Angeles to Pasadena, and construction to extend the line to Azusa is scheduled to be completed by 2015. An additional phase of construction through Montclair may begin the following year, with completion by 2019 at the earliest.

Gold Line officials in March allocated about $810 million for the Azusa to Montclair portion of the rail line, but the project will probably require twice that amount to be completed.

Montclair Councilman Bill Ruh said extending the Gold Line is critical for his city and other foothill communities, but also lamented that transportation officials have not chosen to fully fund the rail extension.

"I think it (Villaraigosa's legacy) would be very mixed," Ruh said. "Yes, he was very instrumental at getting some funding for the Gold Line, but they're also looking at some of the money going to a subway to the sea, which could be better spent on the Gold Line."

The MTA's project list includes more than $4 billion to build a subway line to stops in Century City and Westwood.

Los Angeles' next mayor may also play a more decisive role than Villaraigosa in settling the long-simmering conflict over who controls L.A./Ontario International Airport.

Under Villaraigosa's tenure, airport policy and the controversy over who should control ONT has been largely left to city bureaucrats, said Marcia Godwin, a professor of public administration at University of La Verne.

Godwin expects that either Garcetti or Greuel would take a more active role in airport policy given her sense that both candidates are building their campaigns, in part, on promises of a more efficient city government. Godwin was not ready to predict, however, how either candidate may spend newfound political capital on the airport issue. The city's next mayor may choose to seek improvements within Los Angeles World Airports, the city agency that manages Los Angeles International Airport and ONT, or may move toward the local control option favored by politicians and business leaders in Ontario and other Inland Empire cities.

"I don't have a good sense of which direction it's going to go, but I do think it's going to get more attention," Godwin said. "Either one is going to want to get away from the lawsuits and litigation, which is where we're at."

Garcetti has said he may end up supporting local control, whereas Gruel has not opined on the airport controversy while her city and Ontario are in negotiations.

Ontario has threatened to sue over the airport issue, having filed a claim that could lead to formal litigation. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has adopted a motion supporting local control of ONT, but Los Angeles administrative officer Miguel Santana has warned Ontario's shift toward a legal battle could delay any airport accord between the two cities.

The Port of Los Angeles is another vital aspect of Southern California's infrastructure in which the mayor and city of Los Angeles can affect and have conflicts with those in other cities.

The city of Long Beach is suing Los Angeles over the latter city's approval of BNSF Railway's plans for a 153-acre rail yard near Wilmington and Long Beach communities. Long Beach officials had asked Los Angeles to delay their approval due to potential environmental problems in West Long Beach.

"We have worked together on a number of major projects," Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster said earlier this month. "Regrettably, this proposal is different from our recent successes and, frankly, these communities deserve better."

In addition to policies in which the mayor would shape by his or her own direct decisions, the election may signal shifts in the region's political climate, Godwin said.

For example, Greuel is perceived as being friendlier to public employee unions than Garcetti, Godwin said. Many cash-strapped cities in Greater Los Angeles and the Inland Empire have struggled with the costs of retirement plans of police, firefighters and other city workers and whoever wins in Los Angeles may inform other local politicians as to whether voters want their civic leaders to support city workers or take a tougher line on employee benefits.

"Even though Los Angeles has its own public pension system, they can set the tone," Godwin said. "If she's (Gruel) not elected, others may see that as a signal to more pension reform than might have been otherwise."